I think hotel/motels are governed by a different set of rules than standard rental arrangements. All I know is this: If I lived in that area of the country, I would be seriously planning to leave the area, at least temporarily. Get in the car and head west until you are out of the gas shortages, hotel room shortages, jerk attitudes, etc.

Jerry: I don't understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?

Agent: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.

Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the
reservation.

Agent: I know why we have reservations.

Jerry: I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to
take the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation and
that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody
can just take them.

I bet the marathoners pay a premium for their rooms.

The hotel would suffer no ill effects if it denied prior reservations due to a calamity such as this hurricane.

The question is whether the individuals who were denied would have recourse.

With regard to the folks who are already in the hotel, they are fully protected by the laws regarding tenancy. If they don't leave of their own will, the hotel must commence eviction proceedings. If the hotel tries that approach, and the judge finds that they are paying the room rate, the hotel will have almost no chance to prevail.

Those people have the upper hand............they just don't know it.

man.... beaten to the punch again...;)

http://www.vacationshop.com/specialnews/faqhotels.htm#FAQ-515
 

Must a hotel honor my prepaid or guaranteed reservation?

A prepaid or guaranteed reservation is one where you give the hotel a credit or debit card number and the hotel promises to have a room for you no matter when you show up, even if it's midnight or 3:00 a.m. If you have a guaranteed reservation and the hotel does not hold a room for you, the hotel has breached a contract and must do everything it can to find you a room -- even if that means sending you to another hotel. If you guaranteed your reservation with a credit or debit card, the hotel may be required under the terms of its agreement with the card issuer to pay for your first night's stay at an alternate hotel, to provide free transportation to the alternate hotel as well as a three minute phone call to let your family or office know where you'll be staying, and to forward all incoming calls to your new hotel. Be sure to request these services. If the alternate lodging is more expensive, the hotel should pay the difference.

Is a guaranteed reservation for a hotel room the same as a confirmed reservation?

If you have not paid for the reservation in advance or guaranteed it, but have received a confirmed reservation from the hotel, the hotel must keep a room for you unless you haven't met the conditions of the reservation. For example, it is common for a hotel to say "we will hold the room for you until 6:00 p.m." or "we will hold the room for you if we receive a written confirmation and deposit" by a certain date. If you do not fulfill these obligations, then the hotel does not have to hold the room for you. If you do meet your obligations and the hotel doesn't have a room for you, it must do its best to find you comparable lodging.

That clip was funny as hell...........so true. The DB's run out of cars all the time...........

Why?

Power is getting restored to most of Manhattan this week. If you were smart, you would have bought enough food to work through any shortages. Cooking gas is functional. Oil heat may be a problem in the next week/two, but it's not supposed to get that cold. In short, if you have a place that's not too damaged, you're making the situation WORSE by burning fuel to leave the area. Plus vacant houses and apartments can encourage more robbery and looting.

Jerk attitudes? Most New Yorkers are going out and helping one another. I never lost power, and my door's been open. I'm volunteering tomorrow to check on older New Yorkers who may have been stuck in high-rises for the week without power. In NJ, several friends are sharing generators, and helping neighbors clean up.

Most New Yorkers and NJ'ians are surprisingly helpful and pull together during bad situations, BTW. The "jerk attitude" tends to be mostly on the surface.

I believe they are not the same.

In one case, the hotel charges you immediately. You have effectively rented the room as of that moment.

In the second case, they only have given you a reservation but have not charged the room. Their legal obligations are definitely reduced.

I don't think tenancy laws covers hotels/motels. Paid confirmed reservations trumps all others. Speaking of tenancy, at the end of a rental term, the land lord has the paramount right to evict. As in, "Sorry, the house/apartment is rented to another, you will have to leave now". Renters don't have the power to stay over although some will drag the eviction process out for several months (free rent).

As opposed to a landlord/renter arrangement, a hotel manager merely has to call the police to have the room occupant ejected.

to each their own.

Also, I have several clients who were flooded and had computer/network/etc equipment damaged. Fortunately, no data loss, local as well as cloud backup. I feel like I'd be doing them a disservice if I up and left, and didn't help them restart their businesses. One of them is a construction company which may be very helpful to people recovering from the storm in the upcoming months.

The ride out to Queens yesterday morning. I feel like I was the only person "commuting" *out* of the city, and yes, I was in a siding when I took the picture:

In the state of NY, that is a factually incorrect statement. It's a civil matter and the police cannot intercede in any manner whatsoever.

I would doubt that it's a criminal manner in any other state as well.

Landlord-tenant law only kicks in if the "lease" is longer than a certain # of days. I'd suspect that for short-term hotel renters who refuse to leave, the hotel could call the cops and file a trespassing complaint.

..........and you would be mistaken.